Bologna and Trento still undefeated in Eurocup
The first two tickets to the 2020-21 7DAYS EuroCup Top 16 were secured on Wednesday by fellow undefeated teams Virtus Segafredo Bologna, and Dolomiti Energia Trento with respective road wins over tough foes. They were joined by UNICS Kazan and Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana as the week’s road winners. The results set up tough races to reach the next stage with ties for fourth place in three of the four regular-season groups.
Group B
Unicaja Malaga took a step towards the Top 16 by downing Mornar Bar 98-72 at Martin Carpena on Wednesday. Unicaja improved to 5-2 in the standings while Mornar dropped to 3-4. Axel Bouteille and Dario Brizuela led the winners with 16 points apiece. Marko Jeremic scored 15 for Mornar.
Group C
Milos Teodosic set a EuroCup personal best with 29 points to lead Virtus Segafredo Bologna to an 83-89 victory on the road at Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar and a berth in the Top 16. Virtus became the first team to advance to that stage as it improved to 6-0 on the season. Virtus trailed by 3 entering the fourth quarter before going on an 8-0 run to take control for good. Kevin Hervey scored 21 to lead Lokomotiv, which dropped to 5-2 – having won all its games spare the two against Virtus. Alan Williams added 15 points, and a club-record 18 rebounds in defeat.
Group D
Dolomiti Energia Trento booked its ticket to the Top 16 as it staved off a tough fight with Promitheas Patras to secure an 80-89 road victory. Victor Sanders came off the bench to score a career-high 22 points as Trento improved to 6-0. Promitheas has now dropped two straight games to fall to 2-4 despite Dimitris Agravanis scoring 22 points and Ian Miller picking up 22 points and 7 assists.
Cedevita Olimpija Ljubljana downed Frutti Extra Bursaspor 80-97 on the road. Olimpija improved to 4-2, while Bursaspor dropped to 0-6. Jaka Blazic led the winners with 25 points. Perry Jones paced Bursaspor with 23.
Nanterre 92 enjoyed a long-awaited win by beating visiting Herbalife Gran Canaria 90-74 at Maurice Thorez. The hosts ended a four-game losing streak by turning in a fine defensive effort that held the visitors to 30 second-half points. Nanterre improved to 2-4 and took the head-to-head tiebreaker, while Gran Canaria dropped to 4-2 and will need to wait to seal its qualification to the Top 16. Chris Warren led the way for the winners with career-highs in points (25) and PIR (23), to which he also added 6 assists. Stanley Okoye tallied 24 points in defeat.